In the August edition of SportRider magazine pg 76 begins an article on Honda's MotoGP clutch redesign. It is possibly their greatest innovation after their long sleeper. This article is such a well written article and wide ranging with the insights to how Rossi helped develop Honda into a premier racer when he was there and started winning championships on it.
After Rossi left for Yamaha the brass felt he was replaceable. Per quote from article, "At the time, senior Honda officials barely lamented the loss of the world champion, believing their motorcycle was so strong that they could just plug in another rider. Such hubris would be their downfall."
The article goes on to state that Pedrosa..an excellent rider lacked the skills that Rossi had to develop the Honda brand and languished the Honda brand. Rossi has stated in this article that the new Honda tranny is smoother and allows the Honda Repsols to acclerated harder without upsetting the bike's traction..."accleration is very stable..close to M1 , but with horsepower." Ben Spies, states, "the bike's fast. They look like they fixed some of the stability issues and it acclerates hard and it's smooth on the gear change. It's doing everything good."
Nakamoto, head of HRC Motogp development...says the brake issues are not fixed yet..but better.
Honda's tranny.."a multi-stage transmission there are no shift forks, and there is no lateral movment of the gearwheels. Instead of using dogs cast into the gears to lock them to the countershaft, the Honda setup uses a series of cam-type rods that slide back and forth inside the countershaft itself." "So, this means that there is no power cut needed, power is continously transmitted, and no clutch actuation is necessary." All of us can understand what that means in racing...it is freaking giant advantage for the racer. I was there...I saw the Honda's...they were just so clean..As the yamahas would acclerate out of 4 down the straight to turn 5 you could hear the quick shift cutting power to the engines...the Respsol just had that hair raising scream of high reving MotoGp orgasmic shrill ...no cutouts...
After Rossi left for Yamaha the brass felt he was replaceable. Per quote from article, "At the time, senior Honda officials barely lamented the loss of the world champion, believing their motorcycle was so strong that they could just plug in another rider. Such hubris would be their downfall."
The article goes on to state that Pedrosa..an excellent rider lacked the skills that Rossi had to develop the Honda brand and languished the Honda brand. Rossi has stated in this article that the new Honda tranny is smoother and allows the Honda Repsols to acclerated harder without upsetting the bike's traction..."accleration is very stable..close to M1 , but with horsepower." Ben Spies, states, "the bike's fast. They look like they fixed some of the stability issues and it acclerates hard and it's smooth on the gear change. It's doing everything good."
Nakamoto, head of HRC Motogp development...says the brake issues are not fixed yet..but better.
Honda's tranny.."a multi-stage transmission there are no shift forks, and there is no lateral movment of the gearwheels. Instead of using dogs cast into the gears to lock them to the countershaft, the Honda setup uses a series of cam-type rods that slide back and forth inside the countershaft itself." "So, this means that there is no power cut needed, power is continously transmitted, and no clutch actuation is necessary." All of us can understand what that means in racing...it is freaking giant advantage for the racer. I was there...I saw the Honda's...they were just so clean..As the yamahas would acclerate out of 4 down the straight to turn 5 you could hear the quick shift cutting power to the engines...the Respsol just had that hair raising scream of high reving MotoGp orgasmic shrill ...no cutouts...
